Monday, May 16, 2011

Remember when it rained on a school day and the teachers would declare it 'wet weather timetable'. Which meant the mud pit of an oval was off limits and activities were confined to the library or class room.

Well, during winter I tend to take on my own wet weather timetable too.

Instead of screen printing, which requires a lot of water and screen cleaning or jewellery making in my freezing studio, I'll come up with activities that require a heated room, a table for hot tea and possibly even a couch to stretch out on. Bliss...

Our little blast of winter weather this week, has had me scrounging around to find the crotchet hooks I bought last winter and get busy with some wool.

Eager to be doing something with my hands even though I didn't have desirable wool in the house, I got the old 'Readers digest guide to needlework' out and reacquainted myself with the granny square.

After a day of crocheting hideous color combinations with a needle that was far too small for my ply, I faced the weather with kids in tow and went shopping for some wool.

I knew I'd be like a kid in a candy shop when presented with so much color, so I sensibly planned a few cushion panels in advance. Preselecting my colors, so that I wouldn't come home with some random mix of gaudiness.

Lincraft do have some affordable acrylics in a veritable rainbow of colors, but today they just didn't cut it. I had in my mind colors like , fuchsia, moss and lavender....denim, cherry and slate, but the acrylics, while vast indeed, only came in your basic rainbow. No denim, moss or fuchsia to be seen.So I had to stray to the other shelves and find my colors. Only to be faced with the conundrum of a beautiful 5ply...a great 12 ply and a sort of o.k 8 ply.

Now I don't know much about knitting and crotchet, but I'm pretty sure that if i started messing up my ply's I'd get all sorts of weird shapes and tensions going on.

So of course what I thought would take 5 minutes took an hour of walking back and forth through the wool isles mumbling to myself...that ones 8, what was that other one,...that ones mohair and that's bamboo won't work....hmmmm!

Who woulda' thunk it would be so hard.

In the end and had to bite the bullet on my perceived dollar value of a ball of wool and pay up to $7 a ball to get some of the colors I so desired. OUCH!

So after a few hours of crocheting .... I have all the bits for one cushion cover ready.Definitely a labour of love. Well that and the fact that I'm probably a very slow crocheter.

But it's coming up roses and It's a lovely craft that makes me feel I'm still being somewhat sociable by being able to do it in the lounge room instead of locked away in the study.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

I have been neglecting my ever growing fabric stash as I explored the wonders of resin.A wonderful, delightful and oh so fun deviation it has been, but it's way overtime to restock the shop with some Finki fashion.So this week my focus was on sewing, screening and a little applique.

These pretties are my new skirts ready in time for delivery to the shop for the weekend.Much more on the cutting table to keep me busy for the next few weeks too.Have a good one,Jay xx

Our silent auction is running till 8th May, so if you like the look of any and just must have it for your own, go ahead and place a bid by calling the store on 9388-8006 or sending an email to olivegrovestudios@gmail.com

Some skirts are bid free at this stage, so go on, be the first and nab yourself a truly unique artisan skirt.